1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a switching device, in particular a fuse switch disconnector, comprising a housing and a lid arranged thereon, in which at least one pair of contacts is provided in the housing for receiving respectively one contact blade of a fuse unit, wherein each contact is electrically connected to an input or output contact element.
2. Related Art
Switching devices, in particular fuse switch disconnectors, comprise a housing having a lid, which is preferably pivotably hinged thereto. Depending on the number of poles, contacts having input and output contact elements respectively for receiving fuse units are located in the housing. Here, the fuse units are preferably pivotably arranged along with the lid so that the fuse units are removed from the associated contacts when opening the lid. Such a switching device is known from DE 297 21 440, for example. The housing having the contacts for contacting the contact blades of the fuse units is preferably arranged on busbars by means of an adapter. Here, cylindrical contact elements, which are on one side in electrical contact with respectively one connecting bar, which in turn may be brought into electrical contact with one of the busbars, serve to establish an electrical contact between the input contact elements and the associated busbar. The output contact element serves to mount an end of the line.
In such switching devices it is necessary to pay attention to a preset connection direction, i.e., when the switching device is attached to the busbars, which are horizontally arranged and extend in parallel on top of each other, the output contacts are regularly located at the lower side. It is not possible to change the connection direction of the switching device with regard to the output contacts thereof.
Switching devices of said kind are known as mounting devices and busbar devices. Mounting devices are mounted on a mounting plate or are also snapped onto a mounting rail. In addition, the switching device has separate input and output contacts, to which electrical lines are clamped. Switching devices in the form of busbar devices, as described above, are attached to busbars and conductor rails respectively and therefore exclusively have connection points and output contacts respectively for the output lines. Here, the input supply (feeding) is carried out by means of the previously described contacting of the busbars.
Depending on the concept of the control cubicle and the country-specific standard, output lines leading downwards, but also output lines leading upwards are required. Therefore, in the known switching devices different kinds of housings are required, depending on whether the output contacts are to be accessible from below or from above.